บท 11: Flesh and Blood
Landon was heading home. It was 9 PM, and night had fallen. He had spent the entire day at the hospital, and apart from an elderly man who had been in a car accident and required emergency surgery because he won't be able to get better, Landon hadn't had to heal anyone else.
"Saving one person is something at least..." he thought, sighing as he walked at a relaxed pace toward his hotel.
The night was calm, peaceful, which was strange given that a criminal was roaming the city. Barrow still hadn't been found. A few patrol cars were driving through the streets; apparently, they would do so every night until Barrow was caught.
Landon was walking down a small street, enjoying taking it, as he felt like he was uncovering the city's secrets, taking shortcuts, and so on.
The handsome young man with curly hair was lost in thought:
"I need to find something sustainable at the hospital. I can't just keep going there and waiting for someone to get hurt so I can sneak into their room or, worse, have to enter the operating room..." Landon thought he needed a contact or a nursing position or something similar.
"My presence is starting to get noticed." He had felt a few suspicious glances. After all, it had been over a week that a young man in a hoodie with his head covered had been spending 5-6 hours a day at the hospital. His Haki was starting to sense people paying attention to him. Luckily, he know they just thought he was a junkie looking for medicine or drugs.
Landon was crossing a quiet neighborhood when he suddenly stopped in his footsteps.
A tranquil silence filled the streets, and we can saw a young man standing still.
Landon had sensed something strange with his Haki, an atmosphere of fear and despair, and several predatory and malevolent auras...
He turned his head and looked at the source of these auras, a neighborhood house that was a charming and a pretty house, white and red, quite spacious and well-decorated. It looked welcoming, but Landon's senses detected something disturbing behind this facade of a warm home.
He approached the house and looked at the name on the mailbox: Walcott.
Landon reached the front door of the house, closed his eyes, and focused on his Haki. He sensed more than just an aura of despair. There were four people in the house, two asleep in their bedrooms, and the other two were in some kind of hidden basement within the house. One of the two was tied up and hanging by their hands from some sort of hook.
It was from this person that the aura of fear was emanating, and it wasn't the only thing. Besides them, there were about ten dead human bodies hanging like them from hooks.
And it seemed that the person in the basement, who was the captor, was kneeling on the floor, devouring raw flesh,the flesh belonging to the bodies on the hooks...
Landon grimaced in disgust. He picked up a large stone from the ground, extended his arm, and threw it at one of the neighboring house's windows, shattering the glass with a crash.
Landon returned to the house before him, lifted his foot, and slammed it against the door.
The door flew off its hinges and crashed against the wall with a loud "Boom!!"
Landon entered and calmly headed toward the basement. His Haki informed him that the victim wasn't in immediate danger, so he took his time heading down. He walked through the living room and made his way to the wall where the stairs leading to the room where the young girl and the captor were hidden.
He raised his leg and did the same thing he had done to the door.
With a loud noise, the wall, which was just a facade, was shattered. Landon continued on his way, sensing the other two people who had woken up when he had broken down the door earlier, heading toward him.
He kept moving forward, descended the stairs, and reached the basement door a few seconds later. He opened the door and entered.
The room was cold, with a few white lights on the ceiling. The moment Landon stepped into the room, something sprang at him from behind. This thing had been hiding on the ceiling just above the door. It was human but had white-gray eyes like smoke, sharp black fangs, and claws.
This creature attacked him from behind, trying to stab his chest with its claws as soon as it saw the boy. Landon caught its arm without any difficulty and threw it a few meters away, making sure not to hurt it.
His light green eyes scanned the room, and it wasn't a basement as he had initially thought but a refrigerated room, a cold storage where the "food" was preserved...
Landon saw the victim tied up and hanging like cattle. She was conscious; the captor wanted her to be conscious...
She was a young brunette girl, in tears, with remnants of makeup and mascara on her face. Her mouth was gagged.
She was terrified, looking at him with hope and pleading.
"You made a grave mistake coming here, kid..." The captor, likely something supernatural, had gotten up and said those words while looking him straight in the eyes.
"Your flesh will be delicious..." he said, smiling and revealing his blackened fangs. You could see the pleasure of hunting new prey in his white-gray eyes, which shinning.
Landon looked at him for a moment before speaking.
"What are you exactly...? You're not a werewolf, am I right?" Landon sensed that the man in front of him didn't share the same bestial aura as Scott and the others. There was something more vile and cadaverous about this being. Moreover, there were differences with the young adolescents he had seen recently, especially the fangs; those of the man in front of him resembled those of piranhas.
The man panicked when he heard those words. He hadn't expected the person in front of him to be aware of the supernatural.
"Who are you? A hunter?" The creature asked, stepping back a few paces, now wary.
"Hunter..." Landon thought before being interupted
Two growls sounded behind the young man.
The captor, who had been cautious just seconds ago, felt reassured, remembering that his wife and son were here too. Three against one,there was no way the young hunter before him stood a chance.
"Hehehe, since you're kindly donating your sweet flesh to us..." he said, smiling, his tongue sliding over his fangs. He looked ecstatic at the thought of sinking his teeth into Landon's flesh.
"Let me tell you what's going to kill you: We are Wendigos!!!" The man shouted his last sentence as if making a proclamation and immediately leaped at Landon. The two people behind him did the same, rushing at him, trapping Landon.
The tied-up girl screamed, as much as she could with her mouth gagged, trying to warn the young man. But he just stood there, motionless, seemingly unaware of the danger he was facing.
The young brunette closed her eyes, turning her head away, not wanting to see what would happen to the young man. She didn't want to see him get ripped apart, but more than that, she didn't want to see her last hope die before her eyes.
She only had the hope that the young man had called the police and that they would arrive in time to save her.
She heard a howls, a screams. She screamed as well, trying to block out the horrible sounds of the young man being dismembered by these monsters... too scared to realize there were multiple howls, not just one.
She started crying harder. She was just a young girl who had been running in the woods that very morning. The entire day had been a nightmare, and she couldn't take it anymore.
"Wake up, wake up..." she wanted to wake up and find herself in her bed, everything that had happened was just a bad dream.
In the silence of the room, only her sobs could be heard. Several seconds passed before she realized that the only sound in the room was her sobbing, nothing else. There was silence, calm.
And it wasn't just that; the room which had been freezing, was no longer. A gentle warmth enveloped the entire space. She could hear the crackling of a fire, the rustling of flames. She opened her eyes and saw no one. There were only two burnt, charred figures on the floor, but they weren't smoking or giving off any heat. It was as if they had been burned a long time ago.
But what stood out in the scene was the blue-gold flame floating in the air, illuminating the room with a soft warmth.
The young girl couldn't believe her eyes; she was confused, lost.
But before she could understand more, the flame moved toward her. Instinctively, she wanted to back away and flee, but not only was she still tied up, she also felt that the flame had no "hostility" toward her.
The flame grew, becoming a torrent of blue-gold fire before engulfing her entire body. But no harm was make to her. The flame burned her for a few more seconds, and the ropes binding her were the only thing reduced to ashes.
The young girl fell to the floor. The wounds on her hands and wrists due the ropes were gone, her body no longer felt weak and fragile, and she no longer felt the hunger, thirst, or fatigue that had tormented her for hours.
And she felt a little less afraid, enough to get up and quickly leave that cursed place, running through the house of horrors and out into the yard where a few neighbors in bathrobes and pajamas were gathered.
She saw them and collapsed onto the grass, sobbing, saying and screaming things that were unclear. A few people rushed over to comfort her, asking what was wrong and if she was the Walcotts' son Sean's girlfriend.
In the distance, the sound of police sirens could be heard approaching. The neighbors had called them earlier.
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Landon arrived deep in the woods of Beacon Hills, having run at full speed. Despite the weight on his shoulder, it took him only five minutes to get there.
He threw down the man,or rather, the supposed "Wendigo",he had been carrying, who was unconscious.
Landon moved toward him and woke him up by burning his arm.
"Argghhhh..." The man woke up, clutching his arm in pain, screaming for a few seconds before looking around, confused.
"Alright, my friend, let's have a chat about what you know about this place, the supernatural, and so on..." The young man in front of him, who had wiped out his family in an instant, looked at him and smiled kindly, almost softly. He opened both hands, revealing a blue-gold flame in each. They looked identical, but nothing could be further from the truth: one was meant to heal, and the other to burn him alive.
That night, unbeknownst to everyone except a few poor animals that couldn't sleep, blood-curdling screams echoed through the woods of Beacon Hills for several hours.
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'Hmmm, I see, it seems the world I'm in is more like Twilight, even though there are no vampires...' Landon had kindly inquired of the Wendigo, who, between tears and begging, had given him some interesting information.
Landon thought as he left the woods. dawn was getting up, and without realizing it, he had spent the entire night with his new "friend," but it was worth it. Landon now knew more about this place: Beacon Hills, the Hales, the Argents...
Landon confirmed several times whether vampires existed here, but no,the Wendigo named Michael had told him that vampires were one of the few famous species that didn't exist. He was almost certain. This world harbored many supernatural beings, some strange and unknown, but vampires weren't among them.
Michael had explained some supernatural species, but he didn't know many. Plus, the tears and pleading didn't help make his explanations clear. Landon knew he should have gone easier on him, but he couldn't find enough strength in himself to show any pity.
So it took a bit longer and was more challenging to communicate, but that was fine; Landon wasn't in a hurry, and it was oddly effective. Michael ended up telling him everything.
Michael and his family were Wendigos. He had met his soulmate in 1995 and married her. They found each other,it was almost romantic if they weren't psychopathic cannibals.
Landon couldn't afford to judge species; Wendigos eat human flesh,it's just how nature made them. But they would capture young children or men and then frighten them to make their flesh softer. It's true that when Landon heard that, he admits that he deliberately increased the temperature of his right flame and reduced the healing power of his left flame, limiting it only to the essentials to ensure the Wendigo wouldn't die.
Landon couldn't hold a grudge against the Wendigo species in particular, but he could hold one against Michael and his family. Landon remembered a story with a similar situation. In his previous life, he had watched an anime about ghouls that ate human flesh, unable to consume anything else. And even if 90% of those ghouls were also psychopaths, he still remembered a café run by peaceful ghouls who only fed on the bodies of suicides.
Even in the worst cases, if humanity was in a particularly joyful period, they fed on the worst criminals, not touching the innocent or civilians.
'Maybe vampires aren't so bad after all...' Between mosquito-like bloodsuckers and piranha-like cannibals, both sound horrible, but the latter definitely more so than the former.
Landon continued thinking about everything he had heard on the way back to the hotel. He wasn't in a hurry; breakfast would be served in an hour. He walked at a leisurely pace and arrived at his hotel 40 minutes later.
"Yo, Alfred, how's it going?" Landon smiled at one of his few acquaintances. Alfred smiled back. He had spoken to him quite a few times over the past week and even explained why he called him that, ready to stop if he didn't like it, but Alfred loved it. Landon even noticed a few Batman comics in one of the drawers using his Haki.
'It seems I've created a passion in our friend here...' Landon smiled with amusement at the thought.
"So, what's the news?" Landon asked as he sat down on one of the chairs at the reception desk, looking at Alfred in front of him.
"Well, the news is buzzing today about the criminal who escaped. They found him; he almost attacked a young girl..." Alfred explained the situation.
Apparently, last night, the police arrived just in time to stop Barrow from electrocuting a young girl after he had knocked her out and taken her to an electrical plant.
'So he was caught... good,' thought the young Phoenix, but he quickly returned to the conversation as he listened to the next words from the butler.
"But there's something even stranger and more frightening..." Alfred said slowly, speaking more and more quietly.
"It seems that during the night, a most unusual and terrifying incident occurred..." Alfred spoke softly, seriously, all while wiping the same glass with a towel since the beginning of this conversation.
'Hmmmm, it seems he's trying to be dramatic...' Landon thought with amusement, playing along with his friend.
'But I am curious to know what the police know and what they told the public...'
"Last night, a police car was called by worried neighbors who initially thought it was a burglary, but... not at all, my young friend!" Alfred looked him straight in the eyes, his expression serious.
"When the police arrived, they found the neighbors and a panicked young girl who told them a horrifying and fantastical story that the officers didn't believe at first. But as they explored the house, they discovered two charred corpses, burned alive, and an entire freezer room filled with dozens of dismembered bodies and jars full of fresh human flesh..." Alfred paused his tirade, still cleaning the same glass with the same cloth...
"Gradually, with the girl's account and the discoveries in the house, what had happened became clear. It seems this young girl was the victim of a kidnapping. Her captors were a family of three,a woman, her husband, and their teenage child,and each of them indulged... in cannibalism, and the girl was to be their next..."
"Meal..." Alfred said quietly, even softer, as if he didn't want to shock his audience, which consisted of just one person.
"It seems that when her captors were ready to kill her, someone burst into the house, arriving at the perfect moment. And this is where the story takes a strange turn. According to this poor girl, her captors weren't human but monsters with glowing white eyes and black fangs, and the person who entered the house supposedly burned the entire family with magical powers before disappearing after freeing her..." Alfred said the first part seriously, but the second part with a hint of ridicule, clearly not believing it.
"Poor girl, she's in shock and saw things, but there was indeed a fourth individual who saved her and allegedly burned the first two, and the father is missing. According to the victim, he vanished at the same time as her rescuer. The police will have to wait a bit before taking the girl's testimony, or if her delirium continues, they won't be able to use it for the investigation to understand what happened..." Alfred said.
"But the house is now filled with police officers, forensic experts, and even FBI agents. This case is something never seen before in Beacon Hills or even in America in recent years... This case is going to make a lot of noise."
Alfred was right about that.
'I probably should have burned the house down...' Landon thought. He had considered doing it before leaving, evacuating the girl and reducing the house to ashes, but he didn't want the bodies of the kidnapped victims to never be returned, or for their families to never know what happened to them, still hoping they might walk through the door one day.
'There is no use crying over spilled milk...' Landon sighed. Alfred saw his reaction and said,
"Moreover, there are also scientific teams with excavators and others raking the yard. They think many of the old victims are buried there. Who knows how long this crazy family has been practicing this... there might be hundreds of bodies..." Alfred finished his explanation with an intriguing and mysterious voice.
Landon smiled for a moment at the dramatic and mysterious persona his butler friend was playing, but then he thought about Alfred's last words, his smile fading and his eyes darkening, reminding him of something he didn't want to hear.
Michael had told him that he was born this way; all Wendigos are born Wendigos, and that it's their diet from birth. An adult Wendigo consumes an average of one human body per month. Given the age and size of the family of three Wendigos, not only could Alfred be right, but the truth could be far worse. After all, they've been in Beacon Hills for eight years. This is undoubtedly just the visible tip of a mountain of human corpses...
Landon felt a pang of regret for not continuing, even when there was no more information to extract. He simply sighed and started heading towards breakfast.
But Alfred said one last thing that stopped him in his tracks:
"Take care, young friend... The streets of Beacon Hills hide many secrets and dangers..."
'You have no idea how right you are, Alfred...' Landon continued on his way.
[Wendigo bestiary - here]
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